Twisted
by FlyingToTheMaximum
Summary: "My name is Maximum Ride. I'm 16 years old. This is the story of how I fell for my best friend. Cute, right? There's only one problem. My best friend just so happens to be my brother." Don't like, don't read. That simple. AH. Tried to rate accurately.
1. Chapter 1

**So this is my first story. My friend dared me to write a story about incest. And I was like "Sure, why not?" We were both in love with the story Something Gone Wrong by forever2yours. If you don't like it, feel free to not read it. I'm writing this because it seemed fun. So, without further ado, I give you my first chapter. **

**P.S. It won't all be this mushy. Well, I hope it won't. I don't really know where this story is going.. **

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><p>My name is Maximum Ride. I am 16 years old. This is the story of how I fell for my best friend. Cute, right? There's just one problem. My best friend just so happens to be my brother.<p>

Fang and I were best friends. He was the best brother I could have asked for. He always had my back and I always had his. We never really fought, which more than surprised our parents and everyone who met us. Fang was my right hand man and when our home life started to fall apart we grew closer than ever.

The first thing that came to mind when I thought of Fang was never 'brother' but I never paid too much thought to that.

He was my rock. My life raft. The wind beneath my wings. And any other corny cliche's you can think of. That was what Fang was to me. We were planning on going to college together at NYU. We were going to get out of Arizona. Life was going to get better for us.

But of course things never go the way you plan. That would be too easy.

So, let the fun begin.

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><p><strong>3rd POV<strong>

**2 years ago**

**(Max: 14; Fang: 15)**

_The blue sky stretched on forever without a single cloud in sight. Such a beautiful day could surely lift anyone's spirits and turn every pessimist into an optimist, even if it was only for a single day. But there were two people beneath that beautiful sky that felt as though the brightness of the sun and the songs of the birds were mocking their misery. It felt as though the world was laughing at them, because everyone else was happy. _

_Max and Fang refused to shed a single tear. They had all but run out of tears in the past six years. After so much stress and sadness and anger, there comes a time when you just run out of tears. That was the position these two siblings found themselves in now. After so long, the thing they had feared the most had finally happened. _

_Their parents were getting a divorce and they had decided to split everything. __Even the children. After fourteen years of being attached at the hip, they were being forced to say goodbye. _

_Max helped Fang load his last bag into their father's car and then they reluctantly turned to face each other. Fang took Max's face in his hands and she stared into his deep obsidian eyes. The same eyes that had gotten her through all those painful nights, the same eyes that made her feel safe, that made her smile, that let her know she was never alone. How could she ever live without those eyes? How could she live without Fang? _

_ "I want you to listen to me, Max," Fang said quietly so he wouldn't be overheard by their parents who were standing not too far away. "This is _not _goodbye. I'll see you soon. They said they're going to keep us from contacting each other, but as soon as you turn eighteen, I'm coming to get you. And then you and me can go to college at NYU away from all this shit and just live, okay? Just like we planned. This. Is. Not. Goodbye. You hear me?" Max put her hands over his hands, keeping them on her face, and nodded, still wondering just how she was supposed to make it through life without her older brother there to help her. _

_ "You're my best friend," she whispered. "I'll always be there for you Fang. Even miles away. Even when you can't talk to me or see me. You'll never be alone. I'll always be there." Fang gave her a small smile and pulled her into a crushing hug. _

_ "Always," he whispered in her , all too soon, he stepped back. She missed his arms already. For so long they had been the only thing holding her together. Those arms let her know that her brother, her best friend, was there to protect her. _

_ "See you soon," he whispered. _

_ "See you soon," Max mumbled, stepping away from the car. _

_ As Jeb started to pull out of the driveway, Fang turned in his seat, rolled down the window and raised his hand, holding up four fingers. From the porch, Max held up four fingers as well. Even after the Mercedes was out of sight, she continued to hold her hand up in the air and stare at the corner where the car had disappeared. _

_ Four years. Just four more years. _

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><p><strong>Max POV<strong>

**2 days ago**

**(Max: 16; Fang: 17)**

_Two years had passed since I last saw my brother, Fang. Since that day, I hadn't spoken one word to him. My mother wouldn't allow me. _

_"He's going to turn into the same monster your father is, Max. Just forget him," my mother would always tell me. I never listened to her. I could tell she didn't believe the words she said anymore than I did. She loved Fang. But she wasn't able to keep both of us and she thought lying to herself would make her less upset. I suppose it would have, if she had actually believed herself. But she didn't. So we had lived the last two years speaking as little as possible, struggling to forget the past while still striving to remember it. _

_Forgetting about Fang was not an option for me. I only had two more years to go. I was half way there. _

**_.*.*.*._**

_I turned my music down as my mom opened the door to my room. We had moved to another state a few months after my brother and Jeb had left. There were too many memories for my mom to handle in our own house. She was determined to make it seem like it had always been me and her. _

_When I saw the look on my mother's face, I turned off my music completely and stood up. She was paler than a ghost and her eyes were wide and glazed over._

_ "Mom?" I asked hesitantly. "Are you okay? What is it? What's happened?" She put a hand against my door frame to steady herself and then whispered, so quietly I almost couldn't hear her, _

_ "It's… It's your father… He was... in a lab accident. He's dead… and Nicholas is coming back to live with us…." _

_Then she fainted. _

_ I was frozen. A million different thoughts rushed through my head-thoughts of my dad, thoughts of my mom, my family, of how this would impact my life- but one thought overpowered the rest. "Nicholas is coming back to live with us." _

_ Fang was coming back. _

_ My best friend was coming home._

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><p><strong>Max POV<strong>

I hate airports. Claustrophobia and crowded places don't do well together. But this once, I was willing to put up with the discomfort. I couldn't just sit at home like my mother had and wait for him to arrive in a taxi. I've been waiting for two years to see him again. I wasn't going to wait a minute more than I had to. That woman must be crazy to have thought any different.

Behind all my excitement, anxiety and fear were chewing on my nerves. Questions kept popping up in my head. How different would he be now? What if he had turned into my father? What if he had replaced me while he was in North Carolina? My heart started pounding painfully in my chest as I saw the people coming in from the plane that had just landed.

Fang's plane.

I searched the faces frantically, butterflies dancing around inside my stomach, but there were too many people. I couldn't see him anywhere. Still looking around for him, I raised my hand high up in the air, hoping he would see it and understand, and held up four fingers. One for each year we were supposed to spend apart. The last message he sent to me before he disappeared from my life. I stood up on my tip toes so he would have a better chance of seeing me.

Then I saw it. A hand was raised above the heads of the other passengers and the person was holding up four fingers.

It was Fang.

At that moment, like in some cheesy chick flick, the crowd thinned out and seemed to part in front of me, and I saw him. I could see his raven black hair, his olive skin. He was wearing a black shirt, black jeans, and black converse. Just like when I last saw him. Brown eyes met black eyes and a grin spread across his face. And the next thing I knew, I was running.

_"Fang!" _

I closed the distance between us in seconds and tackled him in a hug. People passing by looked at us funny but I didn't care. My brother was back. His arms wrapped around my waist and he spun me around in circles, just like he used to do when we were younger.

And after two years of wandering around, lost in the world, I was finally home.

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><p><strong>So? Tell me what you think. Feel free to tear it apart. I love criticism. But if you're just going to tell me how disgusted you are at the thought of incest, please refrain. I think it's kind of gross too. But it's an interesting thing to write about. <strong>

**I'll try to make the next chapter less rushed. **


	2. Chapter 2

**Okay. So, I just wrote this, like ten minutes ago. I felt bad because I hadn't come up with anything since my last post. I intended to be more frequent with my updates. I mean, I have no life so you'd think it'd be easier to write this. It's not like I have no time to spare. But this proved to be more challenging than I anticipated. So sorry it took so long and sorry this is short and kind of sucky.**

**To answer some questions, yes Fang and Max are actually related. There is no secret to be revealed about how one of them was actually adopted or switched at birth or whatever. I decided if I was going to write a story about incest, I might as well go all the way, right? Right. So, without further ado, I give you chapter two… again, sorry it's short and stuff. But I figured it was better than nothing...**

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><p><strong>Fang POV<strong>

I still couldn't wrap my head around the fact that Max was _here_. She was right there beside me, looking at me with that smile I missed so damn much. Her hair was longer now, reaching the middle of her forearms, and it was more brown than blond. Her dark brown eyes shone with happiness and it made me grin to know that I was the one who made her feel that way.

We were in her car on our way to my new home and we were talking about anything and everything. In that two hour drive I spoke more than I had in two years. It was just the way it used to be. As if I'd never left. I smirked as I caught Max looking at me through the corner of her eye again with that goofy grin.

"Do I have something on my face?" I asked, wiping a hand over my mouth as I turned in my seat more to look at her. She laughed and the sound warmed my heart.

"I guess I'm just waiting for you to disappear. This feels like it's all a d ream right now." She blushed a little, embarrassed that she had said something that had revealed her feelings. _Still my Max,_ I thought, smiling, with a slight shake of my head. She tilted her head and stared at me for a few seconds with a calculating look.

"What?"

"You've been working out." It wasn't a question, it was a statement. I grinned and held up my arm, flexing it for her.

"You're right. Welcome to the gun show, Max. Let me introduce you to thunder and his brother lightning," I said with a smirk on my face. She rolled her eyes and looked back at the road, trying to suppress a grin.

"You're not that ripped, Fang. You still look like a bean pole."

"Skinny and lean are two different things, Maxie."

"Still have that ego on you, I see."

"I have a reason to be this confident."

"Arrogance and confidence are two different things, Fangy," Max said in a sad impression of my voice. I laughed and decided it was time to change the subject. We would go on for hours if we kept this bantering up.

"You know, I still went by the name Fang in North Carolina. I refused to answer to anything else." Max laughed again, her eyes crinkling, and that same warm feeling came over me. I had missed that sound so much.

"I still remember how I came up with that nickname. It was when you lost your first tooth and then cried hysterically when mom told you the tooth fairy would come and take it at night-"

"So we stayed up all night wearing our hockey masked, armed with fly swatters, waiting for her," I finished, laughing at the memory. "I can still remember mom's face when she walked in and saw us on my bed surrounded by chocolate wrappers and empty coke cans."

"I so won that burping contest by the way," Max told me.

"You did not! I beat you by a long shot."

"Why don't you just accept your loss?" she teased, glancing at me once before looking back at the road. "Eleven years is a long time to hold a grudge." I sighed quietly and flicked her ear.

"I forgot how annoying you were." She grinned and stuck her tongue out at me.

"You love me!"

"Yeah. Yeah, I guess I do," I said with a small smile.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

**A/N: Sorry I took forever to get this up. I feel like a horrible person! I was like, "I'm going to start a fanfic and update all the time so people will like me instead of thinking I'm one of those procrastinators." And now I'm thinking "wait… you ARE one of those procrastinators." **

**I'm supposed to be doing a packet for Biology right now that's due tomorrow, so that's why I'm writing this now. I have stopped procrastinating for this story so that I can procrastinate for something else. **

**What is my life? **

**Anyway, here's Chapter Three! **

MAX POV 

"…and if you need anything, anything at all, just ask me."

"Yeah mom, he heard you the first seventy times," I said to our mom with a grin as I picked up one of Fang's bags. "Can we take his stuff to his room now?"

"Oh, yes of course!" mom said, seeming to realize for the first time that Fang, unlike me, hadn't put down his things and was still holding the bags he had carried in.

"I'll start dinner while you help Fang get settled a little. Don't take too long, though. There's so much to talk about!" She looked at Fang as if she were half expecting him to disappear at any moment. Fang gave her a small half smile.

"I'm not going anywhere, mom," he said, reading her expression perfectly. "We have plenty of time, don't worry." Mom's face softened and her eyes grew misty as she put a hand on his cheek.

"We do, don't we?" she asked, not expecting an answer. She stood there for a second, then snapped out of it and took a step back to give Fang room. "Well, go on! Your room won't fix up itself! I'll get the spaghetti ready. That was always your favorite." For the second time that day, Fang smiled a genuine smile.

"I only ever liked yours, mom."

"So, this is it," I said, dropping the bag I was carrying on the queen sized bed in the guest room – I mean, Fang's room. I watched him as he took in everything. The walls were gray and the hardwood floor was the darkest color mom and I could find at Lowes. The curtains were plain black, along with the furniture, which consisted of a dresser, a desk in front of the window, the head board for the bed, and two bean bags in the corner. On the wall opposite of the bed, there was a quote written in perfect cursive: "Those who do not know what love is liken it to beauty. Those who claim to know what love is liken it to ugliness." **(Quote from Bleach XD. Thought it fit their... er... soon to be **_**situation**_**.)**

"Did you do this yourself?" Fang asked quietly, tracing the black letters with the tips of his fingers. I nodded, and then remembered he wouldn't be able to see me.

"Yeah. I did that when I found out you were going to come live with us. I remembered it used to be our favorite quote, and it's still mine, so… what?" Fang had turned and was smiling at me again. I smiled too, without realizing. Fang never was one for smiling – or showing emotion of any kind – but when he did, it was contagious.

"It's still my favorite too." I met his gaze and could see the joy shining in those midnight eyes, though no one else would have been able to. I stepped closer and wrapped my arms around his torso, hugging him fiercely. I still couldn't get over the fact he was _here. _I tried not to think about it, but in the back of my mind I couldn't help but wonder what his life had been like the last two years with our father. How had Fang managed to survive with him? What had he done to my brother while I wasn't there for him? I closed my eyes and hugged him even tighter. Fang hugged me back – I was the only person he ever hugged – seeming to catch on to my thoughts and kissed the top of my forehead, the way he always used to when I was upset. It was like an unspoken message between us; _I love you. I will protect you. You don't need to be sad or afraid any longer. I am here. _

I pulled back a little and looked up at him.

"You weren't this tall before," I complained, lightening the mood.

"You weren't this short before," he countered. I scrunched up my nose at him, which was how we secretly flipped people off when we were little. It's an inside joke that just proves how immature we really are. He smirked and said, "Come on, you dork, help me unpack my stuff. This place needs more black. Liven it up some."

"Aye, aye, captain," I said, throwing him a lazy salute. I unzipped one of his bags and sighed, shaking my head sadly. "Not even one different color. I need to help you with your wardrobe." I sensed it before it happened. My reflexes kicked in and I started to dodge before I was even fully aware he'd thrown something. But he had already anticipated what I would do and had aimed accordingly. A dark piece of fabric hit me in the face mid-dodge. I hit the floor, unable to stop after diving out of the way, and lifted the article of clothing off of my head so I could glare at him. Fang had his head down, seemingly completely focused on unpacking his things.

Little turd.

I looked down at what he had hit me with and quickly threw it back across the room when I realized what it was.

"Fang! I don't want your boxers near me. _Ever._"

"then don't dive into them," he said without looking up. I could hear the laughter in his voice. My eyes narrowed.

So it was war then….

Fang POV 

I heard the slight scrape of her shoe against the floor. That was the only sound she made, the only warning I had. I had enough time to think _oh shit,_ before 115 pounds of Max slammed into me. Then suddenly I was pinned on my back with a deadly looking Max on top of me. My anxiousness increased as the mischievous smile slowly spread across her face. I knew that look. I'd seen it many times before. What was she planning to –?

Oh, God.

"Max," I said, trying to keep the slight tremor out of my voice. "You know I hate that, don't you –" I didn't get any further than that because at that moment she leaned down and licked the left side of my face from jaw to temple, and then bolted out of the room laughing maniacally.

"MAX!" I shot out of the room, seconds behind her, using the door frame to help me turn so my momentum wouldn't send me into the wall. She ran into the bathroom at the end of the hall and tried to slam the door shut, but I caught it before she could and she screamed.

We were locked in a battle of strength.

She was pushing against the door with all her might and I was too, while simultaneously wiping her gross saliva off on to the shoulder of my shirt.

"You're dead, Maximum!" I growled through the crack in the door. My threat was rewarded with laughter, and I smiled despite myself at the sound. I'd been doing a lot of smiling recently. It was weird. But I had my Max back. Why the fuck shouldn't I be smiling a lot?

"Max! Fang! Come down and eat before you break something!" I heard Max gasp and all of a sudden there was no more pressure on the other side of the door and I barreled into the bathroom, stumbling into Max. I found myself on the floor once more, in a similar situation as earlier, only the positions were switched. **(A/N: that sounded a lot dirtier than I meant it to be :P) **

"Get off me!" Max yelled. "There _food!" _Wincing, I rolled off of Max and stood up. This woman was trying to kill me. I smiled yet again – I was seriously going to have to stop that, it was ruining my image – as I watched Max zip out of the bathroom and down the hallway to the staircase. There she paused a second and looked back at me.

"Come _on! _It's _spaghetti!" _Then she vanished down the stairs. I could already tell living here with Max was going to be a handful.

I didn't realize just how right that assumption would be.


	4. Chapter 4

***So it's been ages since I've even looked at this. But I figured a mindless story is a good way to get over some writer's block, and who knows, maybe this will go somewhere. Eventually. But really, tell me if you like it. Try to refrain from "ew" reviews, I get it, I agree with you, but please give me actual reviews on my writing and your thoughts on the story. Those are most appreciated. **

**3****rd**** POV **

**(Max: 8; Fang: 9) **

_They were yelling again. Little Fang put his hands over his ears, attempting to block it out, but he could still hear them. He squeezed his eyes shut to stop himself from crying, but the tears still escaped and fell from the corners of his eyes, streaking down his face. _

_They had never fought like this before, and it scared Fang. He couldn't make out the words, but that didn't matter to him. He didn't care what they were saying, he just wanted it to stopstopstopSTOP- _

_Fang looked up with wide eyes when a sliver of light cut through the darkness of his room. For a few seconds, the shouts were amplified, and a small figure slid through Fang's cracked door, quickly shutting it behind them to muffle the sound of Fang's parents. _

_He quickly dried his eyes, watching as Max crept over to his bedside, tears running freely down her red, blotchy cheeks. She had obviously been crying for some time. Fang gave her a small smile of comfort and moved over, holding his sheets up so that Max could crawl under them. She wrapped her tiny arms around her brother's frame and neither of them said a word while she cried. No words could be said – they wouldn't make the problems go away. _

_Minutes passed with just the sound of Max's muted sobbing, before she sniffled and looked up at Fang with wide brown eyes, blurred from tears that had yet to fall. _

"_They don't love each other anymore." It wasn't a question, but Fang nodded anyway and hugged her tighter. "What… what if they take me away from you?" she whispered, hesitating as though saying it out loud would make it happen. Fang met her eyes and held her gaze, gathering up all the courage his nine year old self could manage in order to look strong in the mind of his little sister, and said in all seriousness, _

"_That is never going to happen. Okay? I won't let them split us up." _

"_Really?" _

"_Really. I'll always be here for you, Maxie. Always." _

_They fell asleep sometime around two o'clock, long after the front door had slammed and their mother's crying had stopped. _

**Fang POV **

My alarm clock startled me out of my dream back into reality, and I was actually grateful for it. After I yanked the plug out of the wall, I just lied there in my new bed, thinking about my dream. That memory had plagued my dreams almost every night for two years. Not a single day passed when I didn't remember the promise I broke. No matter how unrealistic it had been to make it in the first place – there was nothing I could have done, really – I couldn't shake the guilt. I had left my Max behind. I had let her down… My little sister, my best friend…

A loud banging on my door broke my train of thought and I shot up in my bed as my door burst open. _What is the point of knocking if they're just going to –_

"FANG! FangFangFangFangFangFaaaaaaang! Kill it! Kill it!" The breath was knocked out of me as a hysteric Max landed on top of me in my bed; she looked scared as hell. One look at that face and I knew what was wrong immediately. Only one thing could ever make Max this worked up at 10 in the morning on a Saturday other than bacon.

Spiders.

"Really, Max? You got me up… for this?" I was standing in the upstairs bathroom that Max and I shared, looking at the tiniest spider I'd ever seen in my life. "That is smaller than my pinky nail, Maxie," I said, not bothering to keep the laughter out of my voice. Max whirled around at the sound of me chuckling and gave me her best death glare, and I swear the hatred in that one stare went straight to my soul. Damn. It had been a while since I'd seen _that. _It was still terrifying.

"Don't you laugh at me, Nicholas Ride. And don't call me Maxie. Just kill it! I swear I saw red on it, it's poisonous, I can sense it!" She inched away from the wall as she spoke, moving behind me so I served as her human shield against the spider sitting motionlessly on the wall. It moved slightly and she squeaked, grabbing my arm. I had to bite my lip to keep from grinning. My sister's weakness was kind of adorable.

"Okay," I said calmly, wincing as I felt her nails dig into my bicep. "I'm going to kill it now. No more big bad spiders to scare little Maxie – OW!" I rubbed the back of my head which now stung with pain, inflicted by a quick smack from Max. "Little fucker," I mumbled under my breath.

"Just KILL the damn thing, Fang!" Max commanded in a voice that would have been intimidating if it hadn't wavered so much. Sighing, I took one of the shoes lying on the bathroom floor and slammed it against the wall, planning to end things quickly.

… But I missed.

The spider sped off right before the shoe hit the wall and man could that thing move. I cursed and jumped back as Max screamed.

"Pick it up and try again!" she yelled, hitting my back repeatedly. _Ow. _

"Okay, okay!" I muttered, picking up the shoe again. I stood up, ready to try again, and…

"Max… Where did the spider go?"

….

….

"OH MY GOD FANG FIND IT!" I looked around frantically, trying to spot the spider, but it was nowhere to be found. "Okay, it's okay, just calm do-"

"I AM CALM!"

"…okay… of course… I wasn't going to say you weren't…" I said slowly, trying to appease Max while continuing to search every part of the bathroom. I turned to look at her, about to say it probably won't bother her and that we should stop, but instead, my eyes trained in on a tiny black dot lowering itself between us, right into our line of sight…

And suddenly Max and I were both scrambling onto the top of the toilet lid, where we held each other in a vice-like grip, screaming at the top of our lungs. I looked down at Max and there was a moment's pause as we locked eyes before we yelled in perfect unison, "_Never tell anyone!" _The mortification was suffocating, but there was yet another pause as an unspoken agreement passed between us, and then again, in unison, we yelled for our savior:

"MOM!"

**Max POV**

After such a traumatizing morning, I had ended up deciding to calm my nerves with a movie in my room. I didn't have plans anyway, and I needed some self-therapy. Don't judge me, everyone has at least one fear!

I had just gotten settled down on my bed when there was a soft knock on my door. It was so soft I almost could have convinced myself I hadn't really heard anything.

"Your request for entry has been granted," I called, not looking away from my TV. The door opened silently and Fang slipped in like a shadow come to life.

"This better not be a chick flick," he said, moving like a phantom to the edge of my bed. I put a hand on my heart and gasped.

"How dare you. It's like you don't even know me!" I looked up at my ceiling, pretending to blink back tears. Fang snorted and slipped into my bed next to me. I was lying on my stomach, with my feet by my pillows, and he lied on his back with his head hanging upside down off the edge of my bed.

"So acting. Not the best career move for you," he mocked.

"You're jealous because you can't cry on demand."

"I never cry."

"You cried this morning." Fang's head shot up, and if looks could kill I would have been brutally murdered. I laughed and pushed him lightly with my shoulder. "Come on, sit normally, you wanted to watch the movie with me."

"I'm starting to wonder if I made the right choice…"

"Well there's the door, sir," I said, smiling despite myself. I had missed this so much. Arguing, talking, sitting down and just being with him… I had missed my best friend so much it ached.

Fang rolled over onto his stomach and ended with the left side of his body resting against my right side. He grabbed the remote from my hand and started to skip the previews, which I would have gotten on him for because I love the previews, even old ones, but my mind had wandered.

I found myself thinking of the incident that morning, when Fang had been pressed against me in our attempt to get away from the spider. I remembered how strong his arms were – the boy really did work out – and how his breath had tickled against the top of my head…

I shook my head, like it would shake the memory out of my mind_. What the heck was that?_ Fang shot me a sideways look, wordlessly asking what was up. I shrugged, _it's nothing, _suddenly hyperaware of his body pressed against mine and the warmth that spread through me.

Accepting my shrug as an answer, his attention went to the screen once again and I stared at his profile, examining him. He had grown up a lot in the two years we had been apart, and although he still looked like my brother, my Fang, he looked more mature now, with harder lines in his face. His skin was smooth, and he had a strong jawline and a straight nose. I wondered what kind of people had been around to see this transformation in him, while I had been here, unable to contact him.

"Hey Fang?"

"Mm?"

"What kind of friends did you have in North Carolina?" I watched his face carefully. It didn't change expression, but I saw a flicker of something in his eyes when the question passed my lips. It looked like sadness. Like pain.

"I didn't." I cocked an eyebrow at his answer, and he turned to look at me, giving me the ghost of a smile, and in it I could see his pain. "I hardly spoke to anyone. I hated school, although it was a million times than being home…" his gaze fell from my face to the pattern on my comforter. "But I still hated it, and I hated the people. Unjustly, maybe, but I couldn't help it. I never befriended anyone there."

His answer shocked me. Fang had never been very personable, but I thought he would have made a couple friends. I had hoped, at least. Of course, I was terrified that someone would replace me, but to know that Fang had lived two years, utterly alone… it broke my heart.

"Why…? Why did you hate them?" Fang had been intently focused on my comforter, but after a moment, his eyes traveled back up to meet mine. They almost looked misty, but Fang and I didn't cry anymore.

"None of them were you, Maxie."

My heart fluttered at his words, and, embarrassed, I tried to stop it before my face gave anything away. _What the fuck heart, get it together. I know you missed him, but what are you doing? _

I was so caught up in my heart malfunction – I had no idea what to call it, I didn't even know why it happened! – that I almost missed Fang's question.

"What about you? You moved out here two years ago, do you have any friends?" There was curiosity in his voice, as long with a twinge of fear that only I could have picked up on. I smiled at him.

"I have a few friends, they're on vacation right now because it's summer, but they should be back soon for school when it starts. And no." I smiled at him as I answered the question he hadn't asked out loud.

**Fang POV **

"And no."

Something inside me lifted when she said that. She heard the question I hadn't asked. And that was her answer. No. _No one was like you, Fang. No one came close. _She smiled again, and oddly, my heart stuttered at the sight.

_What the fuck heart? Get it together. _


End file.
